“I do what I think best in order to express what I experience in front of nature.” 

- Claude Monet  

Trees are one of the most important answers to reverse the approaching storm of climate change.  While reversing population growth, educating women and moving quickly to renewable green energy sources are key political and social steps, planting trees are an important practical help that is easily accessible to everyone.   

Reforestation of the lands we have stripped of them is going to take a huge effort. We have been denuding the forests for too long, totally unaware of the effects. We have stripped whole continents of trees and left deserts and open fields of grass.

Reforestation will return the water and the whole ecosystem we took away.  It can be done.  What Sebastião Salgado has done with his family shows us clearly the power of planting and reforestation by just a handful of people.  “The Salt of the Earth” is a heart wrenching documentary about his journey.  It’s amazing what one photographer can do.

But the best thing about planing trees is that it’s accessible to everyone.  We can all be apart of planting.  Whether it’s taking the carbon offset path when we book a flight or planting in your back yard.  Size doesn’t matter, what does is your enjoyment from what you plant and the rich oxygen she will give back to you.  

While for me it’s a spiritual connection to the wild forest, for Mother Nature it’s her breath. For humanity the production of oxygen is our life source.  We should worship, nurture and fight for every single tree, let alone any surviving standing forests.

Macleay River, near South West Rocks on last years Abstract Photography Workshop. This years one at Port Stephens is starting to fill, http://www.lensschool.com/workshops-tours/abstract-photography-workshop-2019 Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2019